Yogis claim practice alleviates pain
Jane Georgiana is convinced that yoga builds her strength and flexibility and helps her to alleviate the pain in her lower back and left shoulder caused by osteoporosis and recent surgery. The 51-year-old Uniontown woman, who was interviewed while she was waiting for a Power Yoga class to begin recently at the Uniontown Area YMCA, said she has been practicing yoga for about three years.
During that time, she discovered that the increased flexibility provided through yoga helps her to feel better.
“I like it because it makes me stronger, and it feels like it oils me up,” Georgiana said. “I developed osteoporosis when I was only 36 years old. I didn’t even know that I had osteoporosis until I started having all of these back problems. Eventually, I had back surgery, and the surgeons actually had to put screws in my spine to hold it together. I also have screws in my left shoulder.”
After her back surgery healed, Georgiana said she received permission from her doctors to begin an exercise program. In addition to yoga, she also does high-low impact aerobics, step aerobics, weight lifting and strength training.
But Georgiana believes she receives the most benefit from the yoga classes.
“The yoga seems to help me more than any of the other exercise classes that I take at the YMCA,” she said. “Sometimes, I miss the other classes, but I get really upset if I have to miss yoga classes.”
After a Power Yoga class ended recently at the Uniontown Area YMCA, 64-year-old Ted Shutok of Uniontown, one of the oldest participants in the class, proudly announced to his fellow yogis that he sat in the lotus position and lifted his 162-pound body off the ground for the first time.
“I was so excited that I had to share my accomplishment with the other people in the class,” Shutok said. “We all support each other in yoga class, and it’s really not competitive. Yoga is all about pushing your own body to its limits, and not worrying about what other people in the class are doing.”
Shutok said he began taking the classes about 18 months ago after he underwent back surgery for a herniated disc and experienced nerve damage to his right leg.
“After my surgery, I wanted to strengthen my back and my legs,” Shutok said.
“My doctor recommended that I try yoga,” Shutok added. “I look forward to the yoga classes, and I hate to miss it. I try to come three times a week.”
Since he started taking the Power Yoga classes, Shutok said he noticed an improvement in both his strength and flexibility.
“I’ve noticed that I can stretch like I haven’t been able to do in years,” he said. “I can do things around the house and get into positions that I haven’t been able to do in years. I shoveled the snow recently, and the next day I wasn’t sore at all. My muscles are conditioned because of all of the yoga I do.”
As she sat on a chair in the hallway at the Y waiting for the Power Yoga class to begin, Melissa Deberry said she was a little bit nervous because this class marked the first time she has done yoga in eight months.
The 33-year-old Uniontown woman said she had to give up yoga for a while because she fractured her knee joint while playing football with her two children.
“I’m not into cardiac or aerobic exercises that much, and yoga is really the only class I ever enjoyed,” Deberry said. “I took yoga classes for about two weeks before I suffered the knee injury. I like it because it provides strength training and flexibility. I also like it because I can work at my own pace.”
After she took her first yoga class almost three years ago, Deberry said her muscles were so sore the next day that she could barely get out of bed or dress herself. But as she continued to take the classes, her muscles gradually began to adjust, and her strength and flexibility began to improve.
“I just feel better when I do yoga. I sleep better. I also gain muscle tone and a lot of strength by doing the yoga,” she said.
Since she began taking yoga classes about 15 months ago, Cheryl Black said she has noticed a decrease in her neck and back pain, which has resulted in fewer trips to the chiropractor’s office for adjustments.
“My posture is better, and I’ve gained muscle tone,” said the 35-year-old Perryopolis woman. “I don’t like to get on the scale so I don’t really know if I’ve lost any weight, but I have noticed that I’ve lost inches. I have definition in areas of my body where I didn’t have it before.”
Although other exercise programs have bored her, Black said she enjoys yoga because it’s challenging and it maintains her interest level.
“Yoga challenges me to push my body and to try to go a little further,” Black said. “I get bored easy, but I don’t get bored with yoga. You can take each step a little further, and each time it makes it a little more interesting.”
After running and swimming for years, 61-year-old Fritz Conaway of Uniontown decided to give yoga a try.
“I run and I swim, but I found out there’s nothing as tough as yoga,” Conaway said. “I was a little surprised by that because I didn’t think it was going to be that difficult. I really like yoga because of the way it makes me feel. I feel great when I wake up in the morning after I’ve done yoga.”
The first time she tried yoga, 35-year-old Tricia Dean of Uniontown was impressed.
“I guess I just wanted to try something new,” Dean said. “Every time you do yoga, you can feel yourself getting a little bit stronger. I started to lose weight when I first started doing yoga because it was something new to my body.”
Dean said she receives a lot of stress relief from practicing yoga.
“It’s a huge stress reliever for me. It settles me down a little bit,” Dean said. “I’m a very nervous and stressed-out person, and yoga is really the only thing that will settle me down. There’s no better way to settle down from an eight-hour shift of work than to do yoga. It makes you feel so strong and so relaxed.”
Wade Zinter, who helps his wife, Leslie, teach the yoga class, explained that it doesn’t matter whether someone is a seasoned athlete or a couch potato because everyone has the ability to push their own body to the limit in yoga classes.
“If you have a lot of muscle tone, and you’ve been exercising for years, you will be able to take the stretches further than someone who has never exercised and has spent his or her entire life lying on the couch,” Zinter said.
“Every time you do yoga, you can challenge yourself to take it to the next level,” he added.
“What I like about it is that it isn’t competitive,” Zinter continued. “You don’t feel like you have to keep up with someone else when you’re doing yoga. It’s all within your body and your mind.”